The NY AES was held last month, and there were a number of new product introductions, many of which can be found in our News and Products sections. But talking with several companies at the show revealed more than just new audio tools. Many are responding to legislation that demands manufacturers create more environmentally-friendly products.
Europe appears to be the leader in setting the standard, but global companies realize that the rest of the world will soon follow and are retooling their product lines for the inevitable.
John Lancken, CEO of Australia's Fairlight, says the company is "promoting green and environmentally-friendly processes in the development, assembly, electronic components, packaging and delivery of our products."
Fairlight has developed a new co-processor that provides end users with huge benefits in terms of power consumption without trading off system performance. According Lancken, their Crystal Core card is able to deliver a 98 percent reduction in electrical power consumption and heat generated when compared with its previous technology platform. "We are getting roughly 1x GFOP for every 1.5 Watts of power consumed, which is quite remarkable," he notes. "For customers looking for technologies that can reduce their carbon footprint, we think it is a very compelling technology platform." See Post's Website for a White Paper on Fairlight's position.
Sony also took a hard look at their carbon footprint three years ago and made significant changes — some that even called for the discontinuation of successful products, such as its DMX-R100 mixing console. "Instead of just looking at what [Sony] had to do to comply in shipping products to Europe, [the company] took another position and said, 'This is the way of the future. It's only right that we look at building all of our products so that they are going to have the minimal amount of impact on our environment, either by use and manufacturing, or eventually by discarding,'" notes Paul Foschino, senior manager for pro audio at Sony.
All Sony products now meet these strict environmental regulations, and, according to Foschino, they "can be shipped anywhere in the world."